Research Finds Room for Improvement in Online Mortgage Experience

A survey of consumer attitudes shows many potential borrowers are dissatisfied when it comes to shopping for mortgages online.

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Conducted and published by Web analytics company ""Change Sciences"":https://www.changesciences.com/home, the ""research report"":https://www.changesciences.com/trending/mortgage-web-site-user-experience-2013 examines the user experience at the websites of 12 leading mortgage lenders, including Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Quicken Loans, and Wells Fargo.

According to Change Sciences' findings, mortgage sites as a whole are ""less usable"" than sites providing traditional e-commerce offerings, such as Amazon and Walmart. Compared to other financial sites, mortgage domains rank about average; they fall short when put against personal finance sites.

""Many mortgage sites are missing an opportunity to establish a meaningful rapport with mortgage shoppers,"" Change Sciences said in its report.

Looking at each lender's site in more detail, the report finds the top performers' sites are 18 percent more usable, 11 percent more engaging, and 30 percent more likely to convert visitors than those at the bottom. The top three mortgage sites stood more or less neck and neck, differing by no more than two points overall, Change Sciences reported.

On the other hand, two large lenders stood out at the bottom of the rankings. Research finds BofA's site to be 14 percent less usable, 13 percent less engaging, and 18 percent less effective on conversion than the top three sites, while TD Bank was judged 13 percent less usable, 8 percent less engaging, and 26 percent less likely to convert.